Assessments of the health of the Chesapeake Bay are optimistic, but there are potential reasons not to be too cheerful. The health of the people surrounding the Bay (who, incidentally, might be part of the Bay's problem) is less certain, at least for the short run as brutal heat moves along from frying Houston to giving us a dose of the hot stuff locally. There is lots of good advice out there to help you protect yourself, loved ones and associates, so take it. This weather is nothing to fool around with. Across the nation, urban "heat islands" make it even worse in downtowns. Also, get a taste in this installment of how other states and cities are trying to handle the housing crisis, even as something like gentrification turns Red and Blue to Sorta Purple. It's all News You Can Use for a hot week.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Report card gives Chesapeake Bay a C+, its best grade in 21 years

The Chesapeake Bay’s health, which has waffled between middling and poor for decades, ticked upward in 2023 to its best condition in more than 20 years, according to the latest annual report from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. In a report card issued July 9, the university gave the Bay’s overall health a C-plus for 2023, a half-letter grade improvement from the previous year’s mark. It earned a 55% score, up four points from 2022. Bay Journal

Brutal heat is blasting the East Coast. Here’s a city-by-city forecast.  More than 100 million people are under heat alerts from Florida to Maine. WaPo

Maryland Surrounded by Raw Milk and Bird Flu Risk: Delaware lawmakers have approved [and sent to the governor] legislation loosening restrictions on unpasteurized milk, the fifth state — along with Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota and West Virginia — to expand sales in recent years. Pennsylvania regulators expanded legal raw milk products to include butter as consumer demand for raw products increases. (Pluribus News) [paywalled] Here’s more from a self-interested source.

The state's internet ad tax survives a legal challenge: A federal judge rejected tech firms' claims that Maryland's tax on internet ads violates their free speech rights by prohibiting them from flagging the fee on users' bills. Maryland Matters

IN THE OTHER 49

States, cities consider ‘mansion taxes’ to fund affordable housing From sales taxes to real estate transfer taxes, governments are desperately trying to identify dedicated funding tracts for homelessness and housing… States and cities across the country have been scrambling to figure out how to encourage more affordable housing, and the focus, according to [policy analyst Rita] Jefferson, has been to put homelessness and housing on dedicated funding tracts. “Local governments are trying any way they can to pay for [these initiatives],” she said. Route Fifty

Red-state cities and suburbs are becoming more diverse Growth in Black, Hispanic and Asian communities is transforming cities and suburban counties, especially in red states such as Florida, Indiana and Texas. The presidential swing states Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania also were among the fastest-changing states, according to a new Stateline analysis of census data. The white population share grew in only three states — Montana, South Carolina and Tennessee — and the District of Columbia. Stateline Daily

NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Far-Right Extremists Call for Violence and War After Trump Shooting

"They should all be hung in the streets," one person wrote of Democrats, the media, and others. "War now," another wrote. Far-right communities online lit up on Saturday night with calls for violence, retribution, and civil war in the wake of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. WIRED

America's dirty divide -- Urban heat island effect making temperatures 8F hotter in 65 US cities – study Nearly 34 million people in those cities, or 15% of the US population, experiencing temperatures higher than in surrounding areas The Guardian

As Houston melts down and Texas keeps its grid in-state, Current FERC reforms won’t be enough to solve interconnection gridlock: MIT economists   The U.S. must adopt a national transmission strategy if it wants to deploy enough clean energy to decarbonize the grid, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say. Utility Dive

New report: School cops double student arrest rates and race, gender key factors

Government watchdog reveals students twice as likely to be arrested when officers are present and students’ race, gender and disability play pivotal role. Arrests were two times greater in schools with a regular police presence than at similar campuses without one and race, gender and disability were huge factors in which students were detained, according to a new government watchdog report. The Government Accountability Office report found that when “race, gender and disability statuses overlap” — a concept often known as intersectionality — students “can experience even greater adverse consequences.” The 74 via Route Fifty